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The Coming Prince
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Chapters 10-12 |
by Sir Robert Anderson,
K.C.B., LL.D.
.
"THE COMING PRINCE" on 8 html pages-
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Table of Contents
page 5
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CHAPTER X.
FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECY
"THE secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children." (Deuteronomy
29:29) And among the "things which are revealed" fulfilled prophecy
has a foremost place. In presence of the events in which it has been accomplished,
its meaning lies upon the surface. Let the facts of the Passion be admitted, and
their relation to the twenty-second Psalm is indisputable. There are profound depths
of spiritual significance in the Psalmist's words, because of the nature of the facts
which have fulfilled them; but the testimony which the prophecy affords is addressed
to all, and he who runs may read it. Is it possible then, it may be asked, that the
true interpretation of this prophecy of the Seventy Weeks involves so much inquiry
and discussion?
Such an objection is perfectly legitimate; but the answer to it will be found in
distinguishing between the difficulties which appear in the prophecy itself, and
those which depend entirely on the controversy to which it has given rise. The writings
of Daniel have been more the object of hostile criticism than any other portion of
the Scripture, and the closing verses of the ninth chapter have always been a principal
point of attack. And necessarily so, for if that single passage can be proved to
be a prophecy, it establishes the character of the book as a Divine revelation. Daniel's
visions admittedly describe historical events between the days of Nebuchadnezzar
and of Antiochus Epiphanes; therefore skepticism assumes that the writer lived in
Maccabean times. But this assumption, put forward without even a decent pretense
of proof, is utterly refuted by pointing to a portion of the prophecy fulfilled at
a later date; and accordingly it is of vital moment to the skeptic to discredit the
prediction of the Seventy Weeks.
The prophecy has suffered nothing from the attacks of its assailants, but much at
the hands of its friends. No elaborate argument would be necessary to elucidate its
meaning, were it not for the difficulties raised by Christian expositors. If everything
that Christian writers have written on the subject could be wiped out and forgotten,
the fulfillment of the vision, so far as it has been in fact fulfilled, would be
clear upon the open page of history. Out of deference to these writers, and also
in the hope of removing prejudices which are fatal to the right understanding of
the subject, these difficulties have here been discussed. It now remains only to
recapitulate the conclusions which have been recorded in the preceding pages.
The scepter of earthly power which was entrusted to the house of David, was transferred
to the Gentiles in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, to remain in Gentile hands "until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
The blessings promised to Judah and Jerusalem were postponed till after a period
described as "seventy weeks"; and at the close of the sixty-ninth week
of this era the Messiah should be "cut off."
These seventy weeks represent seventy times seven prophetic years of 360 days, to
be reckoned from the issuing of an edict for the rebuilding of the city – "the
street and rampart," of Jerusalem.
The edict in question was the decree issued by Artaxerxes Longitmanus in the twentieth
year of his reign, authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild the fortifications of Jerusalem.
The date of Artaxerxes's reign can be definitely ascertained – not from elaborate
disquisitions by biblical commentators and prophetic writers, but by the united voice
of secular historians and chronologers.
The statement of St. Luke is explicit and unequivocal, that our Lord's public ministry
began in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. It is equally clear that it began
shortly before the Passover, The date of it can thus be fixed as between August A.D.
28 and April A.D. 29. The Passover of the crucifixion therefore was in A.D. 32, when
Christ was betrayed on the night of the Paschal Supper, and put to death on the day
of the Paschal Feast.
If then the foregoing conclusions be well founded. we should expect to find that
the period intervening between the edict of Artaxerxes and the Passion was 483 prophetic
years. And accuracy as absolute as the nature of the case permits is no more than
men are here entitled to demand. There can be no loose reckoning in a Divine chronology;
and if God has; deigned to mark on human calendars the fulfillment of His purposes
as foretold in prophecy, the strictest: scrutiny shall fail to detect miscalculation
or mistake.
The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month
of Nisan. It may in fact have been dated the 1st of Nisan, but: no other day
being named, the prophetic period must be reckoned, according to a practice common
with the Jews, from the Jewish New Year's Day. [1]
The seventy weeks are therefore to be computed from the 1st of Nisan B.C.
445. [2]
Now the great characteristic of the Jewish sacred year has remained unchanged
ever since the memorable night when the equinoctial moon beamed down upon the huts
of Israel in Egypt, bloodstained by the Paschal sacrifice; and there is neither doubt
nor difficulty in fixing within narrow limits the Julian date of the 1st of Nisan
in any year whatever. In B.C.. 445 the new moon by which the Passover was regulated
was on the 13th of March at 7h. 9m. A. M. [3]
And accordingly the 1st Nisan may be assigned to the 14th March.
But the language of the prophecy is clear: "From the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
and threescore and two weeks." An era therefore of sixty-nine "weeks,"
or 483 prophetic years reckoned from the 14th March, B.C. 445, should close with
some event to satisfy the words, "unto the Messiah the Prince."
The date of the nativity could not possibly have been the termination of the period,
for then the sixty-nine weeks must have ended thirty-three years before Messiah's
death.
If the beginning of His public ministry be fixed upon, difficulties of another kind
present themselves. When the Lord began to preach, the kingdom was not presented
as a fact accomplished in His advent, but as a hope the realization of which, though
at the very door, was still to be fulfilled. He took up the Baptist's testimony,
"The kingdom of heaven is at hand." His ministry was a preparation
for the kingdom, leading up to the time when in fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures
He should publicly declare Himself as the Son of David, the King of Israel, and claim
the homage of the nation. It was the nation's guilt that the cross and not the throne
was the climax of His life on earth.
No student of the Gospel narrative can fail to see that the Lord's last visit to
Jerusalem was not only in fact, but in the purpose of it, the crisis of His ministry,
the goal towards which it had been directed. After the first tokens had been given
that the nation would reject His Messianic claims, He had shunned all public recognition
of them. But now the twofold testimony of His words and His works had been fully
rendered, and His entry into the Holy City was to proclaim His Messiahship and to
receive His doom. Again and again His apostles even had been charged that they should
not make Him known. But now He accepted the acclamations of "the whole multitude
of the disciples," and silenced the remonstrance of the Pharisees with the indignant
rebuke, "I tell you if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately
cry out." (Luke 19:39, 40)
The full significance of the words which follow in the Gospel of St. Luke is concealed
by a slight interpolation in the text. As the shouts broke forth from His disciples,
"Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the
name of the Lord!" He looked off toward the Holy City and exclaimed, "If
thou also hadst known, even on this day, the things which belong to
thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes!" [4] The time of Jerusalem's visitation had come, and she knew
it not. Long ere then the nation had rejected Him, but this was the predestined day
when their choice must be irrevocable, – the day so distinctly signalized in Scripture
as the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, "Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion! shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold thy King cometh unto
thee!" (Zechariah 9:9) Of all the days of the ministry of Christ
on earth, no other will satisfy so well the angel's words, unto Messiah the Prince."
And the date of it can be ascertained. In accordance with the Jewish custom, the
Lord went up to Jerusalem upon the 8th Nisan, "six days before the Passover."
[5] But as the 14th, on
which the Paschal Supper was eaten, fell that year upon a Thursday, the 8th was the
preceding Friday. He must have spent the Sabbath, therefore, at Bethany; and on the
evening of the 9th, after the Sabbath had ended, the Supper took place in Martha's
house. Upon the following day, the 10th Nisan, He entered Jerusalem as recorded in
the Gospels. [6]
The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32. What
then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to
rebuild Jerusalem and the public advent of "Messiah the Prince," – between
the 14th March, B.C. 445, and the 6th April, A.D. 32? THE INTERVAL CONTAINED EXACTLY
AND TO THE VERY DAY 173, 880 DAYS, OR SEVEN TIMES SIXTY-NINE PROPHETIC YEARS OF 360
DAYS, the first sixty-nine weeks of Gabriel's prophecy. [7]
Much there is in Holy Writ which unbelief may value and revere, while utterly
refusing to accept it as Divine; but prophecy admits of no half-faith. The prediction
of the "seventy weeks" was either a gross and impious imposture, or else
it was in the fullest and strictest sense God-breathed. [8] It may be that in days to come, when Judah's great home-bringing
shall restore to Jerusalem the rightful owners of its soil, the Jews themselves shall
yet rake up from deep beneath its ruins the records of the great king's decree and
of the Nazarene's rejection, and they for whom the prophecy was given will thus be
confronted with proofs of its fulfillment. Meanwhile what judgment shall be passed
on it by fair and thoughtful men? To believe that the facts and figures here detailed
amount to nothing more than happy coincidences involves a greater exercise of faith
than that of the Christian who accepts the book of Daniel as Divine. There is a point
beyond which unbelief is impossible, and the mind in refusing truth must needs take
refuge in a misbelief which is sheer credulity.
CHAPTER XI. Back to
Top
PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION
"THIS is a work which I find deficient; but it is to be done with wisdom,
sobriety, and reverence, or not at all." Thus wrote Lord Bacon in treating of
what he describes as "history of prophecy."
"The nature of such a work," he explains, "ought to be that every
prophecy of the Scripture be sorted with the event fulfilling the same, throughout
the ages of the world, both for the better confirmation of faith and for the better
illumination of the Church touching those parts of prophecies which are yet unfulfilled:
allowing, nevertheless, that latitude which is agreeable and familiar unto Divine
prophecies; being of the nature of their Author with whom a thousand years are but
as one day, and therefore are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing
and germinant accomplishment throughout many ages, though the height or ruiness of
them may refer to some one age."
If the many writers who have since contributed to supply the want Lord Bacon noticed,
had given due heed to these wise and weighty words, prophetic study might possibly
have escaped the reproach which comes of its followers being divided into hostile
camps. With the Christian the fulfillment of prophecy does not belong to the region
of opinion, nor even of fact, merely; it is a matter of faith. We have a right,
therefore, to expect that it shall be definite and clear. But though the principles
and maxims of interpretation gained by the study of that part of prophecy which was
accomplished within the era of Holy Writ are by no means to be thrown aside when
we pass out into post-apostolic times, surely there is no presumption against our
finding hidden in the history of these eighteen centuries a primary and partial fulfillment
even of prophecies which will unquestionably receive a final and complete accomplishment
in days to come.
Only let us not forget the "wisdom, sobriety, and reverence" which such
an inquiry demands. In our day prophetic students have turned prophets, and with
mingled folly and daring have sought to fix the very year of Christ's return to earth,
– predictions which possibly our children's children will recall when another century
shall have been added to the history of Christendom. If such vagaries brought discredit
only on their authors, it were well. But though broached in direct opposition to
Scripture, they have brought reproach on Scripture itself, and have given a stimulus
to the jaunty skepticism of the day. We might have hoped that whatever else might
be forgotten, the last words which the Lord Jesus spoke on earth would not be thus
thrust aside:
But what was denied to inspired apostles in days of pristine faith and power,
the prophecy-mongers of these last days have dared to claim; and the result has been
that the solemn and blessed hope of the Lord's return has been degraded to the level
of the predictions of astrologers, to the confusion and grief of faithful hearts,
and the amusement of the world.
Any man who, avoiding extravagant or fanciful views, both of history and of Scripture,
points to events in the present or the past as the correlatives of a prophecy, deserves
a calm and unprejudiced hearing from thoughtful men. But let him not forget that
though the Scriptures he appeals to may thus receive "germinant accomplishment,"
"the height or fullness of them may refer" to an age still future. What
is true of all Scripture is specially true of prophecy. It is ours to assign to it
a meaning; but he who really believes it to be Divine, will hesitate to limit its
meaning to the measure of his own apprehension of it.
The prophecies of Antichrist afford a signal and most apt illustration of this. Were
it not for the prejudice created by extreme statements, prophetic students would
probably agree that the great apostasy of Christendom displays in outline many of
the main lineaments of the Man of Sin. There is, indeed, in our day a spurious liberality
that would teach us to forego the indictment which history affords against the Church
of Rome; but while no generous mind will refuse to own the moral worth of those who,
in England at least, now guide the counsels of that Church, the real question at
issue relates to the character, not of individuals, but of a system.
It is the part, therefore, not of intolerant bigotry, but of true wisdom, to search
the records of the past – terrible records, truly – for the means of judging of that
system. The inquiry which concerns us is not whether good men are found within the
pale of Rome – as though all the moral excellence of earth could avail to cover the
annals of her hideous guilt! Our true inquiry is whether she has suffered any real
change in these enlightened days. Is the Church of Rome reformed? With what
vehemence the answer would be shrieked from every altar within her pale! And if not,
let but dark days come again, and some of the foulest scenes and blackest crimes
in the history of Christendom may be re-enacted in Europe. "The true test of
a man is not what he does, but what, with the principles he holds, he would do;"
and if this be true of individuals, it is still more intensely true of communities.
They do good service, therefore, who keep before the public mind the real character
of Rome as the present day development of the apostasy.
But when these writers go on to assert that the predictions of the Antichrist have
their full and final realization in the Papacy, their position becomes a positive
danger to the truth. It is maintained at the cost of rejecting some of the most definite
of the prophecies, and of putting a lax or fanciful interpretation upon those very
Scriptures to which they appeal.
Indeed, the chief practical evil of this system of interpretation is that it creates
and fosters a habit of reading the Scriptures in a loose and superficial manner.
General impressions, derived from a cursory perusal of the prophecies, are seized
upon and systematized, and upon this foundation a pretentious superstructure is built
up. As already noticed, the Church of Rome displays the chief moral lineaments of
the Man of Sin. Therefore it is an axiom of interpretation with this school that
the ten-horned beast is the Papacy. But of the beast it is written that
"power was given to him over all kindreds and tongues and nations, and all that
dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life." (Revelation 13:7, 8) Are these commentators aware that one-half
of Christendom is outside the pale of Rome, and in antagonism to the claims of the
Papacy? Or do they suppose that all who belong to the Greek and Protestant Churches
are enrolled in the book of life? By no means. But they would tell us the verse does
not mean exactly what it says. [1]
Again, the ten-horned beast is the Papacy; the second beast, the false prophet,
is the Papal clergy; Babylon is Papal Rome. And yet when we turn to the vision of
the judgment of Babylon, we find that it is by the agency of the beast that
her doom is accomplished! "And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast,
these shall hate the whore (Babylon), and shall make her desolate, and naked,
and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire; for God hath put in their hearts
to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until
the words of God shall be fulfilled." "These have one mind, and shall
give their power and strength unto the beast." [2] The governments of Christendom, therefore, are to lend their
power to the Roman Pontiff and priesthood in order to the destruction of Papal Rome!
[3] Can absurdity be more
transparent and complete?
The question here at issue must not be prejudiced by misrepresentations, or shirked
by turning away to collateral points of secondary moment. It is not whether great
crises in the history of Christendom, such as the fall of Paganism, the rise of the
Papacy and of the Moslem power, and the Protestant reformation of the sixteenth century,
be within the, scope of the visions of St. John. This may readily be conceded. Neither
is it whether the fact that the chronology of some of these events is marked by cycles
of years composed of the precise multiples; of seventy specified in the book of Daniel
and the Apocalypse, be not a further proof that all forms; part of one great plan.
Every fresh discovery of the kind ought to be welcomed by all lovers of the truth.
Instead of weakening confidence in the accuracy and definiteness of the prophecies,
it ought to strengthen the faith which looks for their absolute and literal fulfillment.
The question is not whether the history of Christendom was within the view of the
Divine Author of the prophecies, but whether those prophecies have been fulfilled;
not whether those Scriptures have the scope and meaning which historical interpreters
assign to them, but whether their scope and meaning be exhausted and satisfied by
the events to which they appeal as the fulfillment of them. It is unnecessary, therefore,
to enter here upon an elaborate review of the historical system of interpretation,
for if it fails when tested at some one vital point, it breaks down altogether.
Does the Apocalypse, then, belong to the sphere of prophecy accomplished? Or, to
reduce the controversy to a still narrower issue, have the visions of the seals and
trumpets and vials been fulfilled? No one will dispute the fairness of this mode
of stating the question, and the fairest possible method of dealing with it will
be to set forth some one of the leading visions, and then quote fully and verbatim
what the historical interpreters put forward as the meaning of it.
The opening of the sixth seal is thus recorded by St. John:" And I beheld when
he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of
heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she
is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled
together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the
mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and
in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us,
and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"
(Revelation 6:12-17)
The following is Mr. Elliott's commentary upon the vision:
"When we consider," he declares, "the terrors of these Christ-blaspheming
kings of the Roman earth, thus routed with their partisans before the Christian host,
and miserably flying and perishing, there was surely that in the event which, according
to the usual construction of such Scripture figures, might well be deemed to answer
to the symbols of the profigurative vision before us: in which vision kings and generals,
freemen and slaves, appeared flying to and seeking the caves of the rocks to hide
them: to hide them from the face of Him that sat on the throne of power, even from
the wrath of the Lamb.
"Thus under the first shocks of this great earthquake had the Roman earth been
agitated, and the enemies of the Christians destroyed or driven into flight and consternation.
Thus, in the political heavens, had the sun of pagan supremacy been darkened, the
moon become eclipsed and blood-red, and of the stars not a few been shaken violently
to the ground. But the prophecy had not as yet received its entire fulfillment. The
stars of the pagan heaven had not all fallen, nor had the heaven itself been altogether
rolled up like a scroll and vanished away. On Constantine's first triumph, and after
the first terrors of the opposing emperors and their hosts, though their imperial
edict gave to Christianity its full rights and freedom, yet it allowed to the heathen
worship a free toleration also. But very soon there followed measures of marked preference
in the imperial appointments to the Christians and their faith. And at length, as
Constantine advanced in life, in spite of the indignation and resentment of the pagans,
he issued edicts for the suppression of their sacrifices, the destruction of their
temples, and the toleration of no other form of public worship but the Christian.
His successors on the throne followed up the same object by attaching penalties of
the severest character to the public profession of paganism. And the result was that,
before the century, had ended, its stars had all fallen to the ground, its very heaven,
or political and religious system, vanished, and on the earth the old pagan institutions,
laws, rites, and worship been all but annihilated." [4]
"A more notable instance of inadequate interpretation cannot be imagined."
[5] What wonder if men scoff
at the awful warnings of coming wrath, when they are told that THE GREAT DAY OF HIS
WRATH [6] is past, and that it
amounted to nothing more than the rout of the pagan armies before the hosts of Constantine,
– an event which has been paralleled a thousand times in the history of the world?
[7]
For, let the point at issue be clearly kept in view. If the reign of Constantine
or some other era in the history of Christendom were appealed to as affording an
intermediate fulfillment of the vision, it might pass as a feeble but harmless exposition;
but these expositors daringly assert that the prophecy has no other scope or meaning.
[8] They are bound to prove
that
the vision of the sixth seal has been fulfilled; else it is obvious that all
which follows it claims fulfillment likewise. If, therefore, their system failed
at this point alone, its failure would be absolute and complete; but in fact the
instance quoted is no more than a fair example of the manner in which they fritter
away the meaning of the words they profess to explain.
We are now, they tell us, in the era of the Vials. At this very hour the wrath of
God is being poured out upon the earth. [9]
Surely men may well exclaim, – comparing the present with the past, and judging
this age to be more favored, more desirable to live in than any age which has preceded
it, – Is this all the wrath of God amounts to! The vials are the seven last plagues,
"for in them is filled up the wrath of God," and we are told that
the sixth is even at this moment being fulfilled in the disruption of the Turkish
Empire! Can any man be so lost in the dreamland of his own lucubrations as to imagine
that the collapse of the Turkish power is a Divine judgment on an unrepentant world!
[10] Such it may appear to
be to the clique of Pachas, who, ghoul-like, fatten on the misery around them; but
untold millions would hail it as a blessing to suffering humanity, and ask with wonder,
If this be a crowning token of the wrath of God, how are simple souls to distinguish
between the proofs of His favor and of His direst anger!
If the event were cited as a primary fulfillment, within this day of grace,
of a prophecy which strictly belongs to the coming day of wrath, it would merit respectful
attention; but to appeal to the dismemberment of Turkey as the full realization of
the vision, is the merest trifling with the solemn language of Scripture, and an
outrage on common sense.
But there are principles involved in this system of interpretation far deeper and
more momentous than any which appear upon the surface. It is in direct antagonism
with the great foundation truth of Christianity.
St. Luke narrates (Luke 4:19, 20) how, after the temptation, the Lord "returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," and entering the synagogue of Nazareth
on the Sabbath day, as His custom was, He stood up to read. There was handed Him
the book of Isaiah's prophecy, and all eyes being fastened on Him, He opened it and
read these words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
"And the day of vengeance of our God" are the words which followed, without
a break, upon the open page before Him; but, the record adds, "He closed the
book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down." In an age to come,
when the prophecy shall have its ultimate fulfillment, the day of vengeance shall
mingle with blessing to His people. [11]
But the burden of His ministry on earth was only peace. [12] And it is the burden of the gospel still. God's attitude
toward men is grace. "GRACE REIGNS." It is not that there is grace for
the penitent or the elect, but that grace is the principle on which Christ now sits
upon the throne of God. "Upon His head are many crowns, but His pierced hand
now holds the only scepter," for the Father has given Him the kingdom; all power
is His in heaven and on earth. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed
all judgment to the Son;" (John 5:22; Compare 3:17; 12:47) but His mission to
earth was not to judge, but only to save. And He who is thus the only Judge is now
exalted to be a Savior, and the throne on which He sits is a throne of grace. Grace
is reigning, through righteousness, unto eternal life. (Romans 5:21)
"The light of this glorious gospel now shines unhindered upon earth. Blind eyes
may shut it out, but they cannot quench or lessen it. Impenitent hearts may heap
up wrath against the day of wrath, but they cannot darken this day of mercy or mar
the glory of the reign of grace." [13]
It will be in "the day of wrath" that the "seven last plagues,"
wherein is "filled up the wrath of God," shall run their course; and it
is merely trifling with solemn and awful truths to talk of their being now fulfilled.
Whatever intermediate fulfillment the vision may be now receiving, the full and final
realization of it belongs to a future time.
And these pages are not designed to deal with the primary and historical fulfillment
of the prophecies, or, as Lord Bacon terms it, their "springing and germinant
accomplishment throughout many ages." My subject is exclusively the absolute
and final fulfillment of the visions in that "one age" to which, in their
"height and fullness," they belong.
The Scripture itself affords many striking instances of such intermediate or primary
fulfillment; and in these the main outlines of the prophecy are realized, but not
the details. The prediction of Elijah's advent is an instance. [14] In the plainest terms the Lord declared the Baptist's ministry
to be within the scope of that prophecy. In terms as clear He announced that it would
be fulfilled in days to come, by the reappearance upon earth of the greatest
of the prophets. (Matthew 11:14; 17:11, 12) St. Peter's words at Pentecost afford
another illustration. Joel's prophecy shall yet be realized to the letter, but yet
the baptism of the Holy Ghost was referred to it by the inspired Apostle. (Joel 2:28-32;
Acts 2:16-21.)
To speak of the fulfillment of these prophecies as already past, is to use
language at once unscriptural and false. Far more unwarrantable still is the assertion
of finality, so confidently made, of the prophecies relating to the apostasy. There
is not a single prophecy, of which the fulfillment is recorded in Scripture,
that was not realized with absolute accuracy, and in every detail; and it is wholly
unjustifiable to assume that a new system of fulfillment was inaugurated after the
sacred canon closed.
Two thousand years ago who would have ventured to believe that the prophecies of
Messiah would receive a literal accomplishment!
To the prophets themselves, even, the meaning of such words was a mystery. (1 Peter 1:10-12) For the most part, doubtless, men regarded them as no more than poetry or legend. And yet these prophecies of the advent and death of Christ received their fulfillment in every jot and tittle of them. Literalness of fulfillment may therefore be accepted as an axiom to guide us in the study of prophecy.
CHAPTER XII. Back to
Top
FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES
THE main stream of prophecy runs in the channel of Hebrew history. This indeed
is true of all revelation. Eleven chapters of the Bible suffice to cover the two
thousand years before the call of Abraham, and the rest of the old Testament relates
to the Abrahamic race. If for a while the light of revelation rested on Babylon or
Susa, it was because Jerusalem was desolate, and Judah was in exile. For a time the
Gentile has now gained the foremost place in blessing upon earth; but this is entirely
anomalous, and the normal order of God's dealings with men is again to be restored.
"Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written." [1]
The Scriptures teem with promises and prophecies in favor of that nation,
not a tithe of which have yet been realized. And while the impassioned poetry in
which so many of the old prophecies are couched is made a pretext for treating them
as hyperbolical descriptions of the blessings of the Gospel, no such plea can be
urged respecting the Epistle to the Romans. Writing to Gentiles, the Apostle of the
Gentiles there reasons the matter out in presence of the facts of the Gentile dispensation.
The natural branches of the race of Israel have been broken off from the olive tree
of earthly privilege and blessing, and, "contrary to nature," the wild
olive branches of Gentile blood have been substituted for them. But in spite of the
warning of the Apostle, we Gentiles have become "wise in our own conceits,"
forgetting that the olive tree whose "root and fatness" we partake of,
is essentially Hebrew, for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
The minds of most men are in bondage to the commonplace facts of their experience.
The prophecies of a restored Israel seem to many as incredible as predictions of
the present triumphs of electricity and steam would have appeared to our ancestors
a century ago. While affecting independence in judging thus, the mind is only giving
proof of its own impotence or ignorance. Moreover, the position which the Jews have
held for eighteen centuries is a phenomenon which itself disposes of every seeming
presumption against the fulfillment of these prophecies.
It is not a question of how a false religion like that of Mahomet can maintain an
unbroken front in presence of a true faith; the problem is very different. Not only
in a former age, but in the early days of the present dispensation, the Jews enjoyed
a preference in blessing, which practically amounted almost to a monopoly of Divine
favor. In its infancy the Christian Church was essentially Jewish. The Jews within
its pale were reckoned by thousands, the Gentiles by tens. And yet that same people
afterwards became, and for eighteen centuries have continued to be, more dead to
the influence of the Gospel than any other class of people upon earth. How can "this
mystery," as the Apostle terms it, be accounted for, save as Scripture explains
it, namely, that the era of special grace to Israel closed with the period historically
within the Acts of the Apostles, and that since that crisis of their history "blindness
in part is happened" to them?
But this very word, the truth of which is so clearly proved by public facts, goes
on to declare that this judicial hardening is to continue only "until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in;" and the inspired Apostle adds, "And so all
Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer,
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant unto them."
[2]
But, it may with reason be demanded, does not this imply merely that Israel
shall be brought within the blessings of the Gospel, not that the Jews shall be blessed
on a principle which is entirely inconsistent with the Gospel? Christianity, as a
system, assumes the fact that in a former age the Jews enjoyed a peculiar place in
blessing:
But the Jews have lost their vantage-ground through sin, and they now stand upon
the common level of ruined humanity. The Cross has broken down "the middle wall"
which separated them from Gentiles. It has leveled all distinctions. As to guilt
"there is no difference, for all have sinned;" as to mercy "there
is no difference, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call on
Him." How then, if there be no difference, can God give blessing on a principle
which implies that there is a difference? In a word, the fulfillment of the promises
to Judah is absolutely inconsistent with the distinctive truths of the present dispensation.
This question is one of immense importance, and claims the most earnest consideration.
Nor is it enough to urge that the eleventh chapter of Romans itself supposes that
in this age the Gentile has an advantage, though not a priority, and, therefore,
Israel may enjoy the like privilege hereafter. It is part of the same revelation,
that although grace stoops to the Gentile just where he is, it does not confirm him
in his position as a Gentile, but lifts him out of it and denationalizes
him; for in the Church of this dispensation "there is neither Jew nor Gentile."
[3] Judah's promises, on
the contrary, imply that blessing will reach the Jew as a Jew, not only recognizing
his national position, but confirming him therein.
The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable, that before God can act thus, the special
proclamation of grace in the present dispensation must have ceased, and a new principle
of dealing with mankind must have been inaugurated.
But here the difficulties only seem to multiply and grow. For, it may be asked, does
not the dispensation run its course until the return of Christ to earth? How then
can Jews be found at His coming in a place of blessing nationally, akin to
that which they held in a bygone age? All will admit that Scripture seems to teach
that such will be the case. [4]
The question still remains whether this be really intended. Does Scripture
speak of any crisis in relation to the earth, to intervene before "the day when
the Son of man shall be revealed "?
No one who diligently seeks the answer to this inquiry can fail to be impressed by
the fact that at first sight some confusion seems to mark the statements of Scripture
with respect to it. Certain passages testify that Christ will return to earth, and
stand once more on that same Olivet on which His feet last rested ere He ascended
to His Father; (Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:11, 12) and others tell us as plainly that
He will come, not to earth, but to the air above us, and call His people up to meet
Him and be with Him. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) These Scriptures again most clearly
prove that it is His believing people who shall be "caught up," (1 Thessalonians
4:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52) leaving the world to run its course to its destined
doom; while other Scriptures as unequivocally teach that it is not His people but
the wicked who are to be weeded out, leaving the righteous "to shine forth in
the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13:40-43) And the confusion apparently
increases when we notice that Holy Writ seems sometimes to represent the righteous
who are to be thus blessed as Jews, sometimes as Christians of a dispensation in
which the Jew is cast off by God.
These difficulties admit of only one solution, a solution as satisfactory as it is
simple; namely, that what we term the second advent of Christ is not a single event,
but includes several distinct manifestations. At the first of these He will call
up to Himself the righteous dead, together with His own people then living upon earth.
With this event this special "day of grace" will cease, and God will again
revert to "the covenants" and "the promises," and that people
to whom the covenants and promises belong (Romans 9:4) will once more become the
center of Divine action toward mankind.
Everything that God has promised is within the range of the believer's hope; [5] but this is its near horizon. All things wait on its accomplishment.
Before the return of Christ to earth, many a page of prophecy has yet to be fulfilled,
but not a line of Scripture bars the realization of this the Church's special hope
of His coming to take His people to Himself. Here, then, is the great crisis which
will put a term to the reign of grace, and usher in the destined woes of earth's
fiercest trial – "the days of vengeance, that all things
which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)
To object that a truth of this magnitude would have been stated with more
dogmatic clearness is to forget the distinction between doctrinal teaching and prophetic
utterance. The truth of the second advent belongs to prophecy, and the statements
of Scripture respecting it are marked by precisely the same characteristics as marked
the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah. [6]
"The sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow" were
foretold in such a way that a superficial reader of the old Scriptures would have
failed to discover that there were to be two advents of Messiah. And even the careful
student, if unversed in the general scheme of prophecy, might have supposed that
the two advents, though morally distinct, should be intimately connected in time.
So is it with the future. Some regard the second advent as a single event; by others
its true character is recognized, but they fail to mark the interval which must separate
its first from its final stage. An intelligent apprehension of the truth respecting
it is essential to the right understanding of unfulfilled prophecy.
But having thus clearly fixed these principal landmarks to guide us in the study,
we cannot too strongly deprecate the attempt to fill up the interval with greater
precision than Scripture warrants. There are definite events to be fulfilled, but
no one may dogmatize respecting the time or manner of their fulfillment. No Christian
who estimates aright the appalling weight of suffering and sin which each day that
passes adds to the awful sum of this world's sorrow and guilt, can fail to long that
the end may indeed be near; but let him not forget the great principle that
"the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation," (2 Peter 3:15) nor yet the
language of the Psalm, "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:4) There is much
in Scripture which seems to justify the hope that the consummation will not be long
delayed; but, on the other hand, there is not a little to suggest the thought that
before these final scenes shall be enacted, civilization will have returned to its
old home in the east, and, perchance, a restored Babylon shall have become the center
of human progress and of apostate religion. [7]
To maintain that long ages have yet to run their course would be as unwarrantable
as are the predictions so confidently made that all things shall be fulfilled within
the current century. It is only in so far as prophecy is within the seventy weeks;
of Daniel that it comes within the range of chronology at all, and Daniel's vision
primarily relates to Judah and Jerusalem. [8]
.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY on page 1
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CHAPTERS 2-3 on page 2
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CHAPTERS 4-6 on page 3
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CHAPTERS 7-9 on page 4
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CHAPTERS 10-12 on page 5 (this page)
CHAPTERS 13-15 on page 6
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PREFACES on page 7
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APPENDICES on page 8
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For more about the author, read:
Sir
Robert Anderson and the Seventy Weeks of Daniel ---New Window
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